Friday, May 25th was kind of a manic day to begin with. I was going to leave for the Folklife festival in Seattle that evening, and I wasn't packed yet, and I had a dozen things to do first, and I really should have spent more time at work that day. But I had doublechecked and the Convergence vendors' hall WAS open to the public, starting about noon on Friday, and by golly I was gonna go or my future self would never forgive me for missing the one time BPAL comes to visit my town.

As I walked down to the hotel that was hosting the convention, I could tell I was getting close by the increasing number of goth-types on the street. It was in the Hilton, and the swanky lobby contained a number of people dressed in black, standing around talking quietly with luggage beside them. I played it cool, strolled on in as though I had any clue what was going on... found a staircase, wandered down, followed signs to a ballroom, and bingo: Vendors' Hall.

I don't normally do this kind of thing, wander into someone else's party without even trying to blend in, so at this point I was buzzed on a blend of mad glee and mild terror. Not many customers in the Vendors' Hall yet, I noted (still trying to act casual), but it was lined with booths selling fancy black clothing, stripey socks, skull jewelry and other gothy paraphernalia.

And then I saw it. The BPAL booth. (There are some photos of it near the end of this post.) I went straight over and gaped at the rows and rows of bottles. They were arranged in alphabetical order and I started getting dizzy just looking at them. So many to choose from! And I've never bought a bottle before. How can I pick just one or two based on a momentary sniff? Do I buy something I already know and love (and have an imp of), or go for something entirely new?

I recall that there were some blends mixed up exclusively for this event. The last rack isn't alphabetical and seems to be made up of the more expensive, limited edition stuff, so I go over to that end to look for them. There's a guy standing in front of it, making small talk with the girl on the other side of the table. He's asking about the Convergence exclusive blends, and she points them out to him. So I sidle up to sniff them and then test them on my arms. Well, two of them. The third one is a white floral, which I'm not interested in. It's called Lydia and is named after a local ghost (I've never heard of her). The other two are Shanghai Tunnel and The Unheavenly City. So we've got a "Portland's Seedy History" theme going on here. Nice. Shanghai Tunnel is really bitter and murky, and Unheavenly City is complicated but definitely has some coffee in it, which is cool. (Later on it turned extremely jasmine, though, which is not cool.)

So I'm sniffing and sniffing and deciding I don't really want either of these, despite their rarity and resale value, when the chatty guy leaves and the girl starts talking to me. She's wearing a red dress that matches the color of her dreadlocked hair, and she's really friendly and funny, and after we've talked for a couple minutes she sticks out her hand and says, "I'm Beth." And my head explodes.

So that's how I got to have a conversation with the nose and creative genius behind BPAL. After her attention turned to some other customers and friends, I went back to scanning the labels and trying to decide what to buy. And sniffing. Lots of sniffing. I noticed that many of the oils seemed to share a sort of bitter edge to them that I didn't like. Hours later, I realized what I was smelling was the Shanghai Tunnel I had foolishly dabbed on my left wrist, just below my bottle-sniffing hand. Oh, duh.

Seeing that it was taking me 5000 years to decide, Beth asked what my favorite scents were so she could recommend some to me. I told her I love Jabberwocky most, and Delphi second-most, and she looked puzzled: "Seriously? Nobody says that. I mean, I like Jabberwocky, but it's just not that popular." I was sort of stunned by this, and someone else demanded her attention just then, so I never got to find out what scents she would have recommmended based on those two, or why it seemed so strange that those were my favorites.

Eventually I decided on Snake Oil, because it will age well, and given the amount I typically apply, a bottle of anything will last me the rest of my life. I also bought one of the aromatherapy (Panacea) blends called TKO that's supposed to help you sleep. I've had insomnia lately, but even as hyped up as I was right then, when I opened that bottle it was like a big Hand of Calm reached out of it and went "sshhhh." Panacea oils are pricey at $25 a bottle, but I figured if I got even 25 nights of sleep out of it, it would be a great investment. And that bottle contains a heck of a lot more than 25 doses.

So I gave them my money and took my bag o'fumes and went off to run some other errands, leaving the bag in the car. I didn't look into it because it had a cute BPAL sticker sealing it shut, and also I was in a hurry and had a lot of other things on my mind. It did occur to me, as I was congratulating myself on getting BPAL products with no shipping charges, that one down side of not getting your oils through the mail was that you don't get the bonus imps, which is one of the funnest parts of buying BPAL. (The Lab people had notified us in advance that there would be no imps for sale at the booth because "they cause havoc on the plane.") Still, I was very happy with my purchase, and ecstatic about the whole experience.

So I'm racing against the clock to get a bunch of things done, and I finally get home and bring my goodies inside. The bag has started to emit a pretty strong odor, and I'm afraid my bottle of TKO is leaking because that sure as heck doesn't smell like Snake Oil. But I'm distracted from this because the Tea Swap box has arrived and is sitting on my doorstep! If you haven't heard about the Tea Swap, the box arrives filled with different kinds of tea, and you take out as much as you like and put something different back in, and send it on to the next person. So here it is, just in time to take to Folklife with me and share with my host C.

I'm really, really excited about the box of tea, but I set it aside to open once I get to C's. I finally look in the BPAL bag, and discover THERE ARE FOUR IMPS IN THERE WITH MY BOTTLES. (One of the imps had leaked a little, which accounted for the smell.)

Then, and only then, did I start running around in circles going EEEEEEEE!!!